Chandler Jones loves the ‘guys that Bill Belichick has put on this team’

Sometimes it takes more than just pure toughness to get back into a game when all hope appears lost.

Chandler Jones reminded everyone of that Monday in the hours after he and the Patriots defense limited Peyton Manning to one second-half touchdown and held steady as Tom Brady got the team back in the game.

“I feel like it’s more than the mental toughness,” Jones told WEEI.com’s Chris Price. “It’s just the kind of guys that Bill Belichick has put on this team. I feel like we have guys that are willing to put 110 percent on every snap on every play. You can talk about Brandon Spikes. He had a great game. He went out there and he recovered a fumble. It’s certain things, just the camaraderie and the brotherhood and how we work so well together and that’s the progression you’re going to get.”

Jones was one of five defensive players to play all 90 snaps. Devin McCourty, Duron Harmon, Rob Ninkovich and Chris Jones) were the other four and are certainly among the “guys” to whom Jones was referring.

After playing 73 minutes of draining football, including a sack and six total tackles, what was the day after like?

“First thing I’ll say, I’m very sleepy, to be honest with you,” Jones said, after tweeting “goodnight!” at about 3 a.m. on Monday. “But I feel great to go out there and get a good win and to see our team battle like that for more than 60 minutes, actually. I looked at the snap count, we played 90 snaps defensively, so [inaudible] and have to keep moving forward.”

Does Jones feel good about where his team is right now with the post-Thanksgiving stretch looming?

“Personally, I feel like we have to take it one game at a time, one play at a time and try to execute and be perfect that one play or that one game ‘ never look back, never look forward, just take it where you are now,” Jones said. “That’s my take on that.

“Just go ‘ just keep going, don’t stop. No matter what the score is, just keep going. That should be the motto for everyone not just the rookies, but for any team and not just for our team. Any team that saw us play the other night, I’m pretty sure that there are other players that watched that game and it just goes to show don’t stop, just keep going.

“It was an emotional win but it’s over. I would say take some time off and celebrate but I celebrated it last night in my dreams when I was asleep. That’s about it and we’re moving on to Houston.”